Chinese smartphone vendors are expected to ship 200 to 300 million fingerprint recognition enabled smartphones in 2016, according to a report in Digitimes.

Smartphone vendors increasing adoption of fingerprint recognition functionality for mid-range and high-end devices are driving the market, partly due to China-based mobile payment service providers getting ready to go head to head with Apple Pay.

According to the report, Fingerprint Cards are the leading supplier of fingerprint sensors in the Chinese market but many Taiwan-based IC design houses have begun sensor shipments to China-based smartphone vendors in the first quarter of 2016 and plan to increase shipments in the second half of the year.

Digitimes sources indicated that due to the large increase in supply, fingerprint sensors prices may fall 25% in the second half of 2016.

Chinese touch module makers Shenzhen O-film Tech and Truly Opto-electronics have stepped up production of fingerprint modules as well. According to report sources, Truly Opto-electronics ships 1.5 to 2 million fingerprint modules a month, 1.3 million glass-cover modules and 200,000-700,000 film-coated units, and expects to increase monthly shipments to 3.5 million units in the second quarter and further to 5.0-7.0 million units in the second half of 2016.

According to research firm Acuity Market Intelligence, biometric smartphones are officially mainstream with more than 200 smartphones incorporating fingerprint, iris, and eye-vein biometrics having been introduced since Q1 2013 under 70 brand names including Apple, Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi, TCL, Oppo, Vivo, and ZTE.